When Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans, it devastated the already deteriorating St. Bernard Housing Development. Fast-track plans to demolish and rebuild the area resulted in this design our judges called “very strong.”

The first phase of the project includes 466 rental units, assigned to two- and three-story townhouses and a “mansion” building. JHP Architecture broke up the massing into smaller elements and provided through access to maintain consistency with the existing fabric of New Orleans. “We tried to break the blocks down so it didn't look like the projects,” says Ronald E. Harwick, AIA, CSI. The firm also created multiple semi-public spaces, internal parking courts, and a diverse streetscape with stoops and deep galleries.

“It's a remarkably contextual solution for knitting a city back together,” said a judge.